…completely without warning. I noticed that the “Returns” slot was badly taped up and went to have a look. The store had been gutted, but the sequence lights were still going around the now-empty marquees.
I’m annoyed. First Blockbuster came in and underpriced the local video store, forcing them out of business. Then Blockbuster itself closed down, leaving us with just the one. Now that one’s gone. I’ll have to go a couple of miles to a neighboring town if I want to rent videos from a store. And I see that many of the stores in surrounding towns have closed, including the Best Video Store I’ve ever seen – Video Oasis in Cambridge, MA. They always smelled like decaying chickens (they were right next to a chicken meat superstore, with the sign Live Poultry Fresh Killed on it), but they had the hugest selection of videos I’ve ever seen. Bigger than the store in Times Square, N.Y. bigger than the now-departed Tape Head Company in Salt Lake City. Now gone.
I’m afraid I’m gonna have to join Netflix.
I really don’t think you’ll regret it. Yeah, it’s kind of annoying to have a recurring monthly charge, but we use ours constantly. It’s also really cool being able to to stream movies through our 360 (and soon, our PS3). Kept us from going insane during Snowpocalypse in Seattle last year.
I’ve noticed most supermarkets seem to have the automated rental box (the red thingy). I’d be surprised if there weren’t one of those red thingies near by.
Video rental shops still exist? I haven’t seen one in at least two years. The last one I remember near me was Hollywood Video. There used to be a Blockbuster a few miles from me, but that’s gone too. To buy videos I used to go to Suncoast, which is also gone. I haven’t purchased a DVD movie in over a year now, as I watch just about everything online.
The days of movies on physical media for rent or purchase are numbered, my friends.
my problem with those is that they are only a limited slection of recent A-list movies.
I recently wanted to rent an old 80s sc-fi movie that I hadn’t seen in years.
…it used to be that you could reasonably expect a decent sized local and most big chain video stores carry these sort of odd and ends movies. Now, if Netflix doesn’t have it… or only has a few copies of it… what am I supposed to do?
I might be able to find it on a torrent site or broken up into bits on youtube… MAYBE.
There is – right across the street from where the video store was. It’s got 20 recent movies, mostly bad. There’s no comparison.
It’s easier, better, and oiften cheaper to buy used videos from the place next door than to rent from that Red Box. And there’s a better selection.
I’ve looked at the selection in the various Red Boxes around town. I rarely want anything that they have to offer. I tend to enjoy the movies that weren’t specifically produced with the intention of being blockbusters and/or star vehicles.
I’m thinking of joining Netflix if only to catch up on some old TV shows as well as enjoy movies. I’m sure that my husband will also enjoy the service, though he’s perfectly happy to watch any episode of MASH or COPS. Again.
Preach it. End of an era. The new one’s gonna suck. It’ll be great for Sandra Bullock and Adam Sandler; it will suck for foreign and indie films.
For a while.
But when EVERYONE is getting their movies online, we’ll be back to a level playing field. Disney CEO Bob Iger just admitted that the old marketing methods won’t work anymore. (Here’s a blog entry I posted on it today.)
To all those complaining about the end of video rental places: Support your local library!
Any good library worth it’s salt will have an extensive video/DVD/Blu-ray collection including big blockbusters, foreign films, indies, documentaries and TV shows. And if the collection seems poor to your eyes, talk to the librarian, they’ll be thrilled to find out exactly what their patrons want. It only makes their job easier.
And with interlibrary loan, it’s possible to have access to thousands (perhaps hundereds of thousands) of movies or TV shows. While not quite up to Netflix standards, the cost is quite a bit better (FREE!).
My local library charges a fee for each video rental, but it’s generally cheaper than renting from a commercial establishment. The collection is rather slanted to the Hispanic demographic, due to where I live, but it’s still possible to get some movies that are in English. I prefer going to the branch that’s just five minutes up the street, but more and more I find myself going to the regional library, which is about half an hour away, but has a greater selection. Part of this is sentimental…I used to stop by that branch library every day on my way home from school, and do a bit of homework, read a few periodicals, and then wander through the mall on my way home.
Those Redbox things are full of stuff I’ve NEVER heard of, and I get Entertainment Weekly, and read several magazines a month. Where does it come from, and why does it all look so bad???..You MIGHT be able to get DVDs or more likely old VHS tapes from the library, but be prepared to wait and wait and wait. It took me 7 months to get Mad Men Season 1 and 5 months to get Carnivale. Well worth the wait, but still!
The library is an excellent idea, except that our library has sharply reduced hours, so it’s rarely open when I can get to it. We also lost our certification, so we can’t use Interlibrary Loan. Serious bummer.
Our library doesn’t ILL movies, either. (But we do have a nice selection.)
The interesting thing is that they’ve tried a Netflix-style business here and it hasn’t worked. So there are still heaps of video libraries around and they’ve usually got pretty good selections, IMHO. Sure, if you want something really arty or obscure you might need to look around a few places, but generally your local Blockbuster or Video Ezy will have most of what anyone is likely to be looking for.
Patently untrue.
Netflix has way, way more obscure films than Blockbuster ever did.
Here here! We have watched so many movies we normally would not have and found some good gems. Some bizarre movies too, but some really good ones. If they were at Blockbuster I wouldn’t have rented them anyway unless I was on their monthly rental plan.
Netflix does have some problems with old movies, but that isn’t their fault. If the movie or TV season didn’t get released on DVD, they won’t have it, obviously.
The Blockbusters that used to be in Central Square in Cambridge MA used to have some GREAT obscure videos. Unfortunately, they closed it down and opened a new one only a block away – but it didn’t have any of those great idiosyncratic movies. It was just a typical Blockbuster.
I looked in at the nearest Blockbuster Video last night. It’s depressing – for a store that size, there’s not much variety. Not even as much as the Hollywood Video we just lost. Looks like it’s Netflix for us.
TCM is a godsend. I’ve fired up the old VCR over the years and built myself quite the little library. Withnail and I. Rashomon. The Seven Samurai. Fellini, Fellini, and Fellini. Night Must Fall. Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck - got 'em all. The Red Shoes. Excalibur. Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau). The Family Way. Black Narcissus. …only took a decade or so, but good things come to those who wait!
Won’t your library system send AV materials through its interbranch loan system? I can get any DVD or CD in my library system just by requesting it, which I usually do at home over the net. Any DVD/CD that any branch has can be sent to another branch for the patron to pick up. The service is free. Have you asked the staff at your local branch if you can request AV materials from other branches?
My librarian tells me that very few library systems will loan AV materials to other systems.